The long-running effort to restore the Florida Everglades has seen progress at a “remarkable pace” in the past two years, according to a new report.
But more could be done to bolster those efforts, said the report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which reviews Everglades restoration progress every two years at the request of the federal government’s builders, the Army Corps of Engineers.
Their recommendations include incorporating the varied ramifications of climate change into restoration plans, and doing a better job of partnering with the Seminole and Miccosukee Indigenous tribes, which have lived in the Everglades for centuries.
Working closely with tribes would better protect cultural heritage tied to the land, and give biologists a deeper understanding of the ecosystem over time — tribal knowledge of how the Everglades works that has been passed down over centuries.
According to the report, Everglades restoration is about both ecosystems and Indigenous cultures.
Here’s a look at some of the new report’s findings and recommendations.
Climate change and the Everglades
The report addresses what’s known as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a federal-state program that encompasses 68 projects aimed at restoring and preserving the Everglades ecosystem.
The plan was signed into law in 2000, when engineers designed the infrastructure projects needed to pull off all the improvements. The goal is to restore the Everglades seasonal water flow as closely as possible to what it was 150 years ago, and thus restore a crippled ecosystem.
The recent report delves into how climate change is affecting Everglades restoration.
As of 2024, all climate projections for South Florida indicate higher temperatures, which could drive both drier and wetter weather, the report said. That means both warmer weather, and unpredictable rain levels.
A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, and extreme rain events in South Florida — such as the 24 inches of rain that fell in one day in Fort Lauderdale in April 2023 — show how vulnerable the region’s 20th century infrastructure is to the climate in the 21st century.
Much of the restoration plan is essentially supersized plumbing to move water from Lake Okeechobee, clean it and send it south into the Everglades and eventually Florida Bay.
The effort also curtails sending polluted Lake Okeechobee water to estuaries on the east and west coast of the state, where it harms inshore waters, tourism and local businesses.
The scientists behind the report are concerned about restoration objectives, given the possible effects of a warmer climate.
According to the report, sea levels have risen an average of 2.4 mm per year in South Florida over the last century, and the rate has been accelerating.
Since 2006, the sea level has been rising at a rate of between 6 mm and 9 mm per year, for a total over rise over the last 100 years of 9.4 inches.
The result is saltwater intrusion, which has been exacerbated by decades of reduced freshwater flow down from Lake Okeechobee. Freshwater flow has been cut by 70%, allowing salt water to creep in.
Over the past century, freshwater wetlands bordering salt water have receded inland by 2 miles and a low-productivity “white zone” has shifted inland by nearly a mile.
The restoration plan’s goal of increasing freshwater flow can reduce the rate of saltwater intrusion caused by sea-level rise, said the report.
The report also outlined what climate change could do to the already handicapped ecosystem.
A warmer Everglades can result in:
- Altered alligator and crocodile sex ratios, which are determined by temperatures in the nest.
- Breeding changes in fish and amphibians.
- Heat stress in native fish, reducing populations of fish, and animals that eat them.
- More virulent diseases, and thus greater mortality, both for aquatic and terrestrial animals.
- Stress on fish and plants due to less dissolved oxygen in the water.
- Disrupted bird migrations.
As a result, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommended that planners:
- Develop a set of climate-change scenarios to use consistently across all components of planning and restoration. The range of scenarios should be used to assess system vulnerability as temperatures and precipitation changes, and sea levels rise.
- Integrate ecological and physical modeling as well as up-to-date data from a wide array of science sources.
- Regularly revise the operational plan for the entire system based on how the climate is changing and any extreme weather events. The aim is to ensure anticipation of and planning for a wide range of conditions.
Some of the progress that has been made in recent years includes the completion of three miles of bridges along the Tamiami Trial, which had acted as a dam to natural flow. The bridges allow more fresh water to flow into Shark River Slough and reach Florida Bay. A recently constructed seepage barrier between the Everglades and suburban Miami means more water can flow south as well.
On top of that, the Army Corps of Engineers recently broke ground on what many call the crown jewel of the whole $23 billion enterprise, a reservoir to the south of Lake Okeechobee designed to store water, clean it in marsh areas, and send it south where it’s needed.
Indigenous knowledge
The Seminole and Miccosukee Indigenous tribes have lived in the Everglades for centuries, and have a “deep and unique relationship” with the lands, waters, animals and rhythms of the Everglades, the report said.
“Indigenous knowledge spans much longer timeframes than western scientific studies and can therefore enhance understanding of historical ecological conditions and modern deviations from baseline conditions.”
The report emphasized that the tribes’ knowledge of the ecosystem’s past and present, passed down through generations over hundreds of years, could be valuable to decision-making.
To improve the situation, the report outlined a protocol to improve connections with the tribes and include them in real decision-making.
The report also suggested incorporating Indigenous knowledge into restoration planning and management.
For example, the Everglades lost at least 70% of its tree island land cover since 1940 as the land has been cut up into sections that either dry out or flood.
One of the restoration plan’s goals is to create a more natural water flow that brings the islands back.
In its pristine state, the Everglades was covered in a patchwork of sawgrass and tree islands — slightly raised areas where diverse plants and trees could grow.
These teardrop-shaped islands provided habitat for a rich array of wildlife, and tribes lived on them, farmed and hunted on them and conducted cultural ceremonies on them.
The islands also provided “critical refuge and protection against disease, slavery, massacre, and expulsion by European colonizers and the U.S. government,” the report said.
But by 1960, the last family still living on the tree islands left due to “uninhabitable conditions.”
The tribes know a lot about the islands, and how they functioned for eons. The report said that their “unparalleled understanding of the ecosystem” could drive decision-making in a way that benefits tribes and environment.
The report argues that more Indigenous knowledge needs to be blended with science to truly restore the Everglades.
“Careful consideration of tribal connections to the land and their knowledge of the ecosystem will help achieve a more holistic biocultural restoration of the Everglades.”
Right now, there’s no agreed-upon way among scientists to measure the performance of tree islands.
The report suggests restarting a tree-island analysis effort, and including the hundreds of years’ worth of Indigenous knowledge in the process.
The report also said agencies should work with the tribes to consider not just ecosystem improvement, but also cultural impacts as part of performance “so that biocultural restoration can be achieved.”
“Tree island performance measures should inform water operations not only to get the water right,” the report said, “but also to support the livelihoods, cultures, and identities of the people who have called the Everglades home for centuries.”
Bill Kearney covers the environment, the outdoors and tropical weather. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Instagram @billkearney or on X @billkearney6.
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